Chapter XV: Book VIII (3)

It was on the 17th of March that we set out from Hor-Caamoot on our journey to Teawa, capital of the province of Atbara. Our course was N. N. W. through thick brush-wood, with a few high trees; our companions being eleven naked men, with asses loaden with salt. We had several interruptions on the road. At three in the afternoon we encamped at Falaty, the east village of Ras el Feel, a little to the northward. A small mountain, immediately north from this village, the one end of which is thought to resemble the head of an elephant, gives the name to the village and the province[22]. This mountain stretches in a direction nearly north and south, as do the villages, and the small river when it has water, but it was now apparently dry. However, by digging pretty deep in the sand, the water filtering through the sides of the holes filled in a certain time with a putrid, ill-tasted, unwholesome beverage, which is all this miserable village has for its use. The people look sickly and ill-coloured. Falaty is three miles and a half distant from Hor-Cacamoot, its name interpreted is Poverty.

On the 18th, at half after six in the morning we continued our journey through thick, and almost impenetrable woods full of thorns; and in two hours we came to the bed of a torrent, though in appearance dry, upon digging with our hands in the loose sand, we found great plenty of fresh water exceedingly well tasted, being sheltered by projecting rocks from the action of the sun. This is called Surf el Shekh. Here we filled our girbas, for there is very little good water to be found between this and Teawa.

A girba is an ox's skin squared, and the edges sewed together very artificially by a double seam, which does not let out water, much resembling that upon the best English cricket-balls. An opening is left in the top of the girba, in the same manner as the bung-hole of a cask. Around this the skin is gathered to the size of a large handful, which, when the girba is full of water, is tied round with whip-cord. These girbas generally contain about sixty gallons each, and two of them are the load of a camel. They are then all besmeared on the outside with grease, as well to hinder the water from oozing through, as to prevent its being evaporated by the action of the sun upon the girba, which in fact happened to us twice, so as to put us in imminent danger of perishing with thirst.

Yasine had provided a camel and two girbas, as well as every other provision necessary for us, till we should arrive at Teawa. Surf el Shekh is the boundary of Ras el Feel. Here I took an affectionate leave of my friend Yasine, who, with all his attendants, shewed, at parting, that love and attachment they had constantly preserved to me since our first acquaintance.

Soliman, my old and faithful servant, who had carried my first letter to Sennaar, though provided for in the king's service, insisted upon attending me to Sennaar, and dying with me if it should be my fate; or else gaining the reward which had been promised him, if he brought back the good news of my safe arrival and good reception there. At parting, I gave the faithful Yasine one of my horses and my coat of mail, that is my ordinary one; for the one that was given me by Ozoro Esther had belonged to king Yasous, and as it would have been an affront to have bestowed it on a common man like Yasine, who, besides, was a Mahometan, so I gave it (with Ozoro Esther's consent) to Ayto Engedan, king Yasous's grandson. Before parting, Yasine, like an old traveller, called the whole company together, and obliged them to repeat the Fedtah, the Prayer of Peace.

At half past seven in the evening we came to Engaldi, a large bason or cavity, several hundred yards in length, and about thirty feet deep, made for the reception of water by the Arabs, who encamp by its side after the rains. The water was almost exhausted, and what remained had an intolerable stench. However, flocks of Guinea fowls, partridges, and every sort of bird, had crowded thither to drink, from the scarcity of water elsewhere. I believe, I may certainly say, the number amounted to many thousands. My Arabs loaded themselves in a very little while, killing them, with sticks and stones; but they were perfectly useless, being reduced to skeletons by hunger and thirst. For this reason, as well as that I might not alarm any strolling banditti within hearing, I did not suffer a shot to be fired at them.

At eight we came to Eradeeba, where is neither village nor water, but only a resting-place about half a mile square, which has been cleared from wood, that travellers, who pass to and from Atbara, might have a secure spot whence they could see around them, and guard themselves from being attacked unawares by the banditti sometimes resorting to those deserts.

At a quarter past eleven we arrived at Quaicha, a bed of a torrent where there was now no water; but the wood seemed growing still thicker, and to be full of wild beasts, especially lions and hyænas. These do not fly from man, as those did that we had hitherto seen, but came boldly up, especially the hyæna, with a resolution to attack us. Upon our first lighting a fire they left us for a time; but towards morning they came in greater numbers, than before; a lion carried away one of our asses from among the other beasts of burden, and a hyæna attacked one of the men, tore his cloth from his middle, and wounded him in his back. As we now expected to be instantly devoured, the present fear overcame the resolutions we had made, not to use our fire arms, unless in the utmost necessity. I fired two guns, and ordered my servants to fire two large ship-blunderbusses, which presently freed us from our troublesome guests. Two hyænas were killed, and a large lion being mortally wounded was dispatched by our men in the morning. They came no more near us; but we heard numbers of them howling at a distance till day-light, either from hunger or the smarts of the wounds they had received, perhaps from both; for each ship-blunderbuss had fifty small bullets, and the wood towards which they were directed, at the distance of about twenty yards, seemed to be crowded with these animals. The reason why the hyæna is more fierce here than in any part of Barbary, will be given in the natural history of that wild beast in the Appendix.

Though this, our first day's journey from Falaty and Ras el Feel, to Quaicha, was of eleven hours, the distance we had gone in that time was not more than ten miles; for our beasts were exceedingly loaded, so that it was with the utmost difficulty that either we or they could force ourselves through those thick woods, which scarcely admitted the rays of the sun. From this station, however, we were entertained with a most magnificent sight. The mountains at a distance towards the banks of the Tacazzé, all Debra Haria, and the mountains towards Kuara, were in a violent bright flame of fire.

The Arabs feed all their flocks upon the branches of trees; no beast in this country eats grass. When therefore the water is dried up, and they can no longer stay, they set fire to the woods, and to the dry grass below it. The flame runs under the trees, scorches the leaves and new wood, without consuming the body of the tree. After the tropical rains begin, the vegetation immediately returns; the springs increase, the rivers run, and the pools are filled with water. All sorts of verdure being now in the greatest luxuriancy, the Arabs revisit their former stations. This conflagration is performed at two seasons; the first, by the Shangalla and hunters on the southern parts of this woody country, begins in the month of October, on the return of the sun, the circumstances of which I have already mentioned; the latter, which happens in March, and lasts all April, besides providing future sustenance for their flocks, is likewise intended to prevent, at least to diminish, the ravages of the fly; a plague of the most extraordinary kind, already described.

We left Quaicha a little before four in the morning of the 19th of March, and at half an hour past five we came to Jibbel Achmar, a small mountain, or rather mount; for it is of a very regular form, and not above 300 feet high, but covered with green grass to the top. What has given it the name of Jibbel Achmar, or the Red Mountain, I know not. All the country is of red earth about it; but as it hath much grass, it should be called[23] the Green Mountain, in the middle of the red country; though there is nothing more vague or undetermined than the language of the Arabs, when they speak of colours. This hill, surrounded with impenetrable woods, is in the beginning of autumn the rendezvous of the Arabs Daveina, when there is water; at which time the rhinoceros and many sorts of beasts, crowd hither; tho' few elephants, but they are those of the largest kind, mostly males; so that the Arabs make this a favourite station, after the grass is burnt, especially the young part of them, who are hunters.

We reached Imserrha at half past eleven, the water being about half a mile distant to the S. W. The wells are situated upon a small ridge that runs nearly east and west. At one extremity of this is a small-pointed mountain, upon which was formerly a village belonging to the Arabs, called Jehaina, now totally destroyed by the hunting parties of the Daveina, the great tyrants of this country, who, together with the scarcity of water, are the principal causes that this whole territory is desolate. For though the soil is sandy and improper for agriculture, yet it is thickly overgrown with trees; and were the places where water is found sufficiently flocked with inhabitants, great numbers of cattle might be pastured here, every species of which live upon the leaves and the young branches of trees, even on spots where grass is abundant.

On the 20th, at six o'clock in the morning we set out from Imserrha, and in two hours arrived at Rashid, where we were surprised to see the branches of the shrubs and bushes all covered with a shell of that species of univalve called Turbines, white and red; some of them from three to four inches long, and not to be distinguished by the nicest eye from those sea-shells, of the same species, which are brought in great quantities from the West India islands, especially St Domingo.

How these came first in a sandy desert so far from the sea is a disquisition I shall not now enter into. There are of this fish great numbers in the Red Sea, and in the Indian Ocean; how they came upon the bushes, or at the roots of them, appears more the business of the present narrative. To confine myself to the matter of fact, I shall only say, that throughout this desert are many springs of salt-water; great part of the desert is fossile salt, which, buried in some places at different depths according to the degree of inclination of all minerals to the horizon, does at times in these fountains appear very near the surface. Here I suppose the seed is laid, and, by the addition of the rain-water that falls upon the salt during the tropical rains, the quantity of salt-water is much increased, and these fishes spread themselves over the plain as in a temporary ocean. The rains decrease, and the sun returns; those that are near springs retire to them, and provide for the propagation of future years. Those that have wandered too far off in the plains retire to the bushes as the only shelter from the sun. The intense heat at length deprives them of that shade, and they perish with the leaves to which they crept for shelter, and this is the reason that we saw such a quantity of shells under the bushes; that we found them otherwise alive in the very heart of the springs, we shall further circumstantiate in our Appendix, when we speak of mussels so found in our history of the formation of pearls.

Rashid was once full of villages, all of which are now ruined by the Arabs Daveina. There are seven or eight wells of good water here, and the place itself is beautiful beyond description. It is a fairy land, in the middle of an inhospitable, uninhabited desert; full of large wide spreading trees, loaded with flowers and fruit, and crowded with an immense number of the deer kind. Among these, we saw a large one, like the antelope, his buttocks (a considerable way up his back) being covered with white, which terminated upon his thigh in a black line, drawn from the haunch down very nigh to the joint of his hind leg. These we had never seen before. They are called Ariel in Arabia, go in large flocks, are exceedingly swift; though, from the necessity of coming to water, and its only being found in particular places, they were an easy victim to those that watched for them at night.

Sim Sim is a copious spring, which supplies a large bason the Arabs have dug for it near thirty feet deep. It lies west of Rashid, or a little to the southward of west. It is in a sandy desert, in the direct way to Beyla and Sennaar, and here the Daveina kept their flocks, equally secure from the fly and the troops of Sennaar, the two great enemies they have to fear; and being in the neighbourhood of Ras el Feel, they keep a large market there, supplying that country amply with provisions of all kinds, and getting from it, in return, what they have not in their own district.

We were just two hours in coming to Rashid, for we were flying for our lives; the _Simoom_, or hot-wind, having struck us not long after we had set out from Imserrha, and our little company, all but myself, fell mortally sick with the quantity of poisonous vapour that they had imbibed. I apprehend, from Rashid to Imserrha it is about five miles; and though it is one of the most dangerous halting-places between Ras el Feel and Sennaar, yet we were so enervated, our stomachs so weak, and our head-achs so violent, that we could not pitch our tent, but each wrapping himself in his cloak, resigned himself immediately to sleep, under the cool shade of the large trees, invited by the pleasant breeze from the north, which seemed to be merely local, confined to this small grove, created probably by the vicinity of the water, and the agitation we had occasioned in it.

In this helpless state to which we were reduced, I alone continued not weakened by the simoom, nor overcome by sleep. A Ganjar Arab, who drove an ass laden with salt, took this opportunity of stealing one of the mules, together with a lance and shield belonging to one of my servants. The country was so woody, and he had so much advantage of us in point of time, and we were in so weak and discouraged a state, that it was thought in vain to pursue him one step. So he got off with his booty, unless he was intercepted by some of those wild beasts, which he would find everywhere in his way, whether he returned to Ras el Feel, or the frontiers of Kuara, his own country.

Having refreshed ourselves with a little sleep, the next thing was to fill our girbas, or skins, with water. But before we attempted this, I thought to try an experiment of mixing about twenty drops of spirit of nitre in a horn of water about the size of an ordinary tumbler. This I found greatly refreshed me, though my headach still continued. It had a much better effect upon my servants, to whom I gave it; for they all seemed immediately recovered, and their spirits much more so, from the reflection that they had with them a remedy they could trust to, if they should again be so unfortunate as to meet this poisonous wind or vapour.

On the 21st, we set out from Rashid at two o'clock in the morning, and at a little past eight arrived at Imhanzara, having gone mostly N. W. to north and by west. This, too, is a station of the Arabs Daveina; and there had been here large pools of water, the cavities, apparently dug by the hands of men, were from twenty to thirty feet deep, and not less than sixty yards long. The water was just then drying up; and stood only about half a foot in depth, in the bottom of one of the pools. The borders of the basons were thick set with acacia and jujeb-trees; but the fruit of the latter was drying upon the stones, and had fallen shrivelled in great quantities upon the ground. We gathered about a couple of pecks, which was a very great refreshment to us. The fruit, though retaining a very sharp acid taste, is mixed with a sweetness not unlike the tamarind; and which it communicated to water, upon a handful of the dry fruit being steeped therein for half an hour. The ordinary jujeb in Barbary is oblong like an olive; this is perfectly round like the cherry, but something smaller. The tree is thorny, and differs in nothing from the other, but only in the shape of the fruit. When dried, it is of a golden colour; and is here called Nabca, being the principal sustenance of the Arabs, till these pools are dry, when they are obliged to seek other food, and other water, at some more distant station.

This day, being the fifth of our journey, we had gone about five hours very diligently, though, considering the weak state we were in, I do not think we advanced more than seven or eight miles; and it was to me very visible, that all the animals, mules, camels, and horses, were affected as much as we were by the simoom. They drank repeatedly, and for a considerable length of time, but they seemed to go just so much the worse for it.

Upon approaching the pool, that had water in it, though yet at some distance from it, my servants sent me word to come up speedily, and bring fire-arms with me. A lion had killed one of the deer, called Ariel, and had ate a part of it, but had retired upon the noise we had made in alighting. In place of him, five or six hyænas had seized the carcase, and several others were at the instant arriving to join them, and partake of the prey the lion had abandoned. I hastened upon the summons, carrying with me a musket and bayonet, and a ship blunderbuss, with about forty small bullets in it. I crept through the bushes, and under banks as near to them as possible, for fear of being seen; but the precaution seemed entirely superfluous; for though they observed me approaching, they did not seem disposed to leave their prey, but in their turn looked at me, raising the bristles upon their back, shaking themselves as a dog does when he comes out of water, and giving a short but terrible grunt. After which they fell to their prey again, as if they meant to dispatch their deer first, and then come and settle their affairs with me. I now began to repent having ventured alone so near; but knowing, with the short weapon I had, the execution depended a good deal upon the distance, I still crept a little nearer, till I got as favourable a position as I could wish behind the root of a large tree that had fallen into the lake. Having set my musket at my hand, near and ready, I levelled my blunderbuss at the middle of the group, which were feeding voraciously like as many swine, with a considerable noise, and a civil war with each other. Two of them fell dead upon the spot; two more died about twenty yards distance; but all the rest that could escape fled without looking back, or shewing any kind of resentment: I then took my musquet in my hand, and stood, prepared with my bayonet, behind the tree, but fired no more, not knowing what their humour or disposition might be as to a return upon accession of new companions.

About twenty small foxes, and a flock of several hundred Guinea-fowls, now came up from the inside of the pool. The fowls lighted immediately, and ran back again to the water. The foxes retired quickly into the woods. Whether they had assembled with a view of getting a share of the deer, an animal of this kind being generally attendant upon the lion, or whether, as is most likely, they were seeking the Guinea-fowls, I do not know. I suspect it was the latter, by their number; for never more than one at a time is remarked to accompany the lion.

We observed a variety of traps and cages, some of them very ingenious, which the Daveina, or other Arabs, had set to catch these birds, several of which we found dead in these snares, and some of them had not yet been touched by beasts; and as there was but a small distance between the traps and the water's edge, which could only be answerable to a few days evaporation, we with great reason inferred, that the Daveina, or some other Arabs, had been there a very short time before. We found in the mud of the pool large green shell-snails, with the animals alive in them; some of them weighed very near a pound, in nothing, but size and thickness of the shell, different from common garden-snails.

Not a little alarmed at this discovery that the Arabs were near us, we left Imhanzara at four o'clock in the evening of the 21st, our journey mostly N. W.; at eight we lost our way, and were obliged to halt in a wood. Here we were terrified to find, that the water in our girbas was entirely gone; whether by evaporation of the hot wind, or otherwise, I know not; but the skin had the appearance of water in it, till its lightness in unloading discovered the contrary. Though all the people were sick, the terror of being without water gave us something like alacrity, and desire to push on. We set out at eleven, but still wandered in the wood till three o'clock in the morning of the 22d, when we were obliged again to alight. I really then began to think we were lost. I ordered the girbas to be examined: a large one which we had filled at Rashid was entirely empty; and that one which we had partly filled at Imhanzara on account of the badness of the water, had not much more in it than what kept liquid the mud which had been taken up with it. This, however, (bad as it was) was greedily guzzled up in a moment. The people who conducted the asses, seeing that we had skins to contain plenty of water for us, had omitted to fill the small goat-skin which each of them carried. A general murmur of fear and discontent prevailed through our whole company; for we could have no guess at the nearness or situation of the next well, as we had lost our road; and some of the caravan even pretended that we had passed it. But though we had travelled thirteen hours, I cannot compute the distance to have been above fourteen miles.

This day, being the sixth from Ras el Feel, at half after five in the morning, we set off in great despondency; and, upon the first dawn of day, I set our route by the compass, and found it north and by east, or more easterly. This did not seem the probable road to Sennaar, after having gone so considerably to the north-west. But, before I could make much reflection upon the observation, one of the caravan declared he knew the road, and that we had gone very little out of it, and were now proceeding straight to the well. Accordingly, at half past nine, we reached it; it is called Imgellalib[24]. There is great plenty of water, with a leather-bucket, and a straw rope to draw it up, but it is very ill-tasted. However, the fear of dying with thirst, more than having materially suffered from it, made every one press to drink; and the effect of this hurry was very soon seen. Two Abyssinian Moors, a man and woman, died after drinking; the man instantly, and the woman a few minutes after; for my own part, though thirsty, I was sensible I could have held out a considerable time without danger; and, indeed, I did not drink till I had washed my head, face, and neck all over. I then washed my mouth and throat, and, having cooled myself, and in great measure assuaged my thirst, I then drank till I was completely satisfied, but only by small draughts. I would have persuaded all my companions to do the same, but I was not heard; and one would have thought, like the camels, they had been drinking once for many days to come. Yet none of them had complained of thirst till they heard the girbas were empty; and it was not sixteen hours since they had drank at Imhanzara, and but twelve since the girbas were found to be dry, when we first lost our way, and stopped in the wood.

The extensive, and very thick forest, which had reached without interruption all the way from Tcherkin, ended, here at Imgellalib. The country is perfectly flat, and hath very little water. The forest, however, though thick, afforded no sort of shade; the hunters, for the sake of their sport, and the Arabs, for destroying the flies, having set fire to all the dry grass and shrubs, which, passing with great rapidity, in the direction of the wood from east to west, though it had not time enough to destroy the trees, did yet wither, and occasion every leaf that was upon them to fall, unless in those spaces where villages had been, and where water was. In such spots a number of large spreading trees remained full of foliage, which, from their great height, and being cleared of underwood, continued in full verdure, loaded with large, projecting, and exuberant branches. But, even here, the pleasure that their shade afforded was very temporary, so as to allow us no time for enjoyment. The sun, so near the zenith, changed his azimuth so rapidly, that every few minutes I was obliged to change the carpet on which I lay round the trunk of the tree, to which I had fled, for shelter; and, though I lay down to sleep, perfectly skreened by the trunk, or branches, I was presently awakened by the violent rays of a scorching sun, the shade having passed beyond me; and this was particularly incommodious, when the trees, under which we placed ourselves, were of the thorny kind, very common in those forests. The thorns, being all scattered round the trunk upon the ground, made either changing-place, or lying, equally uneasy; so that often, however averse we were to fatigue, with the effects of the simoom, we found, that, pitching the head of our tent, and sometimes the whole of it, was the only possible means of securing a permanent protection from the sun's oppressive heat. In all other places, though we had travelled constantly in forests, we never met with a tree that could shade us for a moment, the fire having deprived them of all their leaves.

---------------- _Latè tibi gurgite rupto
Ambitur nigris Meroë fœcunda colonis,
Læta comis hebeni; quæ quamvis arbore multâ
Frondeat, æstatem nullâ sibi mitigat umbrâ,
Linea tam rectum mundi ferit illa leonem._

LUCAN.

Having refreshed ourselves for near two hours by the enjoyment of this water at Imgellalib, and raked a sufficient quantity of sand over the dead bodies of our two companions, from piety and decency rather than for use, we abandoned them to the hyænas, who had already smelled the mortality, and were coming, two and three together, at the distance of a long shot from the well where we were then drinking. We set out at eleven, our road being thro' a very extensive plain; and, at two in the afternoon, we alighted at another well, called Garigana; the water was bad, and in small quantity. In this plain is situated the principal village of Atbara, called Teawa. The thermometer, slung under the camel, in the shade of the girba of water, had yet, nevertheless, varied within these three hours from 111° to 119½.

At five o'clock we left Garigana, our journey being still to the eastward of north; and, at a quarter past six in the evening, arrived at the village of that name, whose inhabitants had all perished with hunger the year before; their wretched bones being all unburied and scattered upon the surface of the ground where the village formerly stood. We encamped among the bones of the dead; no space could be found free from them; and on the 23d, at six in the morning, full of horror at this miserable spectacle, we set out for Teawa: this was the seventh day from Ras el Feel. After an hour's travelling we came to a small river, which still had water standing in some considerable pools, although its banks were perfectly destitute of any kind of shade.

At three quarters after seven in the evening we arrived at Teawa, the principal village and residence of the Shekh of Atbara, between three and four miles from the ruins of Garigana. The whole distance, then, from Hor-Cacamoot, may be about sixty-five miles to Teawa, as near as I then could compute; that is, from Hor-Cacamoot to Rashid, thirty-two miles, and from Rashid to Teawa, thirty-three miles; but Rashid from Hor-Cacamoot bears N. W. and by N. and the latitudes are:--

Teawa, lat. 14° 2´ 4´´ N.
Hor-Cacamoot, 13° 1´ 33´´
-------------
Difference, lat. 1° 0´ 31´´
-------------

The difference of longitude is then but five or six miles; so that Teawa is very little to the westward of due north from Hor-Cacamoot, and nearly in the same meridian with Ras el Feel, which is four miles west of Hor-Cacamoot. From Imhanzara to Teawa, but especially from Imgellalib, we went always to the eastward of north. From Teawa we observed the following bearings and distances:

Beyla, W. S. W. about 28 miles at farthest.

Hasib, S. and by W.

Jibbel Imsiddera, S. about 8 miles, where is good water.

Mendera, N. 48 miles; indifferent water from deep wells.

Rashid, S. nearly 33 miles; plenty of good water all the year.

Jibbel Isriff, E. N. E. about three miles; water.

Jibbel Attesh and Habharras, W. and by N. between 50 and 60
miles.

Sennaar, W. and by N. as far as we could guess about 70 miles.

Guangue River, from 14 to 16 miles due east.

Derkin, E. N. E. about 27 miles.

At Garigana, several of our caravan, with their asses and loading of salt, left us, either afraid of entering Teawa, or because their friends dwelt at Jibbel Isriff, where the clan of Jehaina were then encamped, being afraid of the Arabs Daveina, who, the preceding year, had destroyed all the crops and villages that belonged to them, or rather reaped them for their own advantage. The whole tribe of Jehaina is greatly their inferiors in all respects, and as by assembling upon Jibbel Isriff, a low though very rugged ridge of hills, abounding in water, where the pits in which they hide their grain were, and where, too, they had deposited the principal of their effects, they had given this pledge of mutual assistance to the inhabitants of Teawa in case of an attack from those great destroyers the Daveina.

The Daveina being Arabs, who constantly live in tents, bear a mortal enmity to all who inhabit villages, and, as occasion offered, had destroyed, starved, and laid waste the greatest part of Atbara. They had been outlawed by the government of Sennaar for having joined Yasous II. upon the expedition against that kingdom. They had ever since been well-received by the Abyssinians, lived independent, and in perpetual defiance of the government of Sennaar. They had often threatened Teawa, but had given the Shekh of Beyla an assurance of friendship ever since Yasine had married a daughter of that Shekh.

The strength of Teawa was about 25 horse, of which about ten were armed with coats of mail. They had about a dozen of firelocks, very contemptible from the order in which they were kept, and still more so from the hands that bore them. The rest of the inhabitants might amount to twelve hundred men, naked, miserable, and despicable Arabs, like the rest of those that live in villages, who are much inferior in courage to the Arabs that dwell in tents: weak as its state was, it was the seat of government, and as such a certain degree of reverence attended it. Fidele, the Shekh of Atbara, was reputed by his own people a man of courage; this had been doubted at Sennaar. Welled Hassan, his father, had been employed by Nasser the son, late king of Sennaar, in the murder of his father and sovereign Baady, which he had perpetrated, as I have already mentioned. Such was the state of Teawa. Its consequence was only to remain till the Daveina should resolve to attack it, when its corn-fields being burnt and destroyed in a night by a multitude of horsemen, the bones of its inhabitants scattered upon the earth, would be all its remains, like those of the miserable village of Garigana.

I have already observed, in the beginning of the journey, that the Shekh of the Arabs Nile, who resided in Abyssinia, near Ras el Feel, since the expedition of Yasous, had warned me, at Hor-Cacamoot, to distrust the fair promises and friendly professions of Shekh Fidele, and had, indeed, raised such doubts in my mind, that, had not the Daveina been parted from Sim Sim, (or the confines of Abyssinia) though there would have been a risk, that if, coming with that tribe, I should have been-ill received at Sennaar, I nevertheless would have travelled with them, rather than by Teawa; but the Daveina were gone.

The Shekh of Atbara, having no apparent interest to deceive us, had hitherto been a friend as far as words would go, and had promised every thing that remained in his power; but, for fear of the worst, Nile had given us a confidential man, who was related to the Jehaina and to the principal Shekh of that tribe. This man conducted an ass, loaded with salt, among the other Arabs of the caravan, and was to set off to Ras el Feel upon the first appearance of danger, which he was to learn by coming once in two days, or oftner, either to Teawa, where he was no farther known than as being one of the Jehaina, or to the river, where my Soliman was to meet him at the pools of water; but his secret was only known to Soliman, myself, and a Greek servant, Michael. From leaving Hor-Cacamoot, he had no personal interview with me; but the night, when we were like to perish for thirst in the wood, he had sent me, by Soliman, privately, a horn-full of water, which he had in his goat's skin, and for which I had rewarded him handsomely in the instant, glad of that opportunity of confirming him in his duty.

This man we set off to Jibbel Isriff, as a stranger, with orders not to come to us till the third day; for we were well-persuaded, whatever the end was to be, that our first reception would be a gracious one. Indeed we were all of us inclined to believe, that our suspicions of Fidele Shekh of Atbara, and of his intentions towards us, were rather the effects of the fear that Shekh Nile had infused into us, than any apprehension which we could reasonably form after so many promises; at the same time, it was agreed on all hands, that, life being at stake, we could not be too careful, in providing means that could, if the worst happened, at the least diminish our risk.

CHAP. V.

_Transactions at Teawa--Attempts of the Shekh to detain the
Author there--Administer Medicines to him and his Wives--Various
Conversations with him, and Instances of his Treachery._

At the passage of the small river, about a quarter of a mile from Teawa, we were met by a man on horseback, cloathed with a large, loose gown of red camlet, or some such stuff, with a white muslin turban upon his head, and about 20 naked, beggarly servants on foot, with lances, but no shields; two small drums were beating, and a pipe playing before them. He stopt upon my coming near them, and affected a delicacy in advancing to salute me, he being on horseback, and I upon a mule, for my horse was led behind, saddled and bridled, with a loose blue cloth covering him. Soliman, who first accosted him, told him it was the custom of Abyssinia not to mount horses but in time of war, upon which he immediately dismounted, and, upon seeing this, I alighted likewise. We saluted one another very courteously. He was a man about seventy, with a very long beard, and of a very graceful appearance. It was with the utmost difficulty I could prevail upon him to mount his horse, as he declared his intention was to walk by the side of my mule till he entered the town of Teawa. This being over-ruled, by an invincible obstinacy on my part, he was at last constrained to mount on horseback, which he did with an agility only to be expected from a young man of twenty.

Being mounted, he shewed us a variety of paces on horseback. All this, too, was counted a humiliation and politeness on his part, as playing tricks, and prancing on horseback, is never done but by young men before their elders, or by meaner people before their superiors. We passed by a very commodious house, where he ordered my servants to unload my baggage, that being the residence assigned for me by the Shekh. He and I, with Soliman on foot by the side of my mule, crossed an open space of about five hundred yards, where the market is kept; he protested a thousand times by the way, what a shame it was to him to appear on horseback, when a _great man_ like me was riding on a mule.

A little after, having passed this square, we came to the Shekh's house, or rather a collection of houses, one storey high, built with canes; near the street, at entering, there was a large hall of unburnt brick, to which we ascended by four or five steps. The hall was a very decent one, covered with straw-mats; and there was in the middle of it, a chair[25], understood to be the place of the grand signior. The Shekh himself was sitting on the ground for humility's sake, reading the Koran, or pretending to read it. At our entry he seemed to be surprised, and made an attempt as if to rise up, which immediately I prevented him from doing, holding him down by the hand, which I kissed.

I shall not fatigue the reader with the uninteresting conversation that passed at this first interview. He affected to admire my size and apparent strength, introduced some loose hints about Abyssinian women; and, in general, pretended to blame me for exposing myself to travel in such a country. In return, I complained of the extreme fatigue of the journey and heat, the beasts of prey, the thick woods without shade, the want of water, and, above all, the poisonous blasts of the simoom that had almost overcome me, the effects of which I was at that instant feeling.

He then blamed himself very politely, in a manner natural to the Arabs, for having suffered me to come to him before I had reposed myself, which he excused by his desire of seeing so _great_ a man as me. He said also, that he would detain me no longer; bid me repose a day or two in quiet and in safety; and, upon my rising to go away, he got up likewise, and holding me by the hand, said, "The greatest part of the dangers you have passed in the way are, I believe, as yet unknown to you. Your Moor, Yasine, of Ras el Feel, is a thief worse than any in Habesh. Several times you escaped very narrowly, by mere chance, from being cut off, especially at Rashid, by the Arabs Daveina, whom Yasine had posted there to murder you. But you have a clean heart, and clean hands. God saw their designs, and protected you; and, I may say also, on my own part, I was not wanting."

Being then on my legs for retiring, I returned no answer, but the usual one (Ullah Kerim) _i. e._ God is merciful. Soliman, on the other side, echoed, "_Ullah Kerim!_" by which I saw he understood me. We both went out, and were conducted to the apartment provided by the old man in the red cloak, who met us on our first arrival at the river, and who now walked before me till we came to the house. It was a very decent one, consisting only of one large room, and stood close upon the river. This situation was chosen with an intention to keep open the correspondence with the Shekh of Nile's servant, whom we had sent to the Jehaina, and who occasionally was to meet us there; but Soliman told the old man, it was necessary to me, on account of frequent ablutions before prayer, which my religion obliged me to perform. This old man was called Hagi Soliman Kaiya, that is, the Shekh's Lieutenant. He had been at Mecca, and had seen Metical Aga, and knew his post and consequence; but he was a murderer and robber like his master, a liar and dissembler beyond all conception.

We had scarce taken possession of our lodging, or thrown off our clothes to put ourselves at our ease, when several slaves of both sexes, brought us a quantity of dishes of meat from the Shekh, with many flattering compliments and good wishes. The whole was dispatched very speedily, and some of our poor companions of the caravan, with the salt, came and helped us very thankfully, without ceremony, as is the custom of the country. When all was over, I was astonished at one young man, who came and put his mouth close to my ear, saying these few words in Arabic, "Seitan Fidele! el Shekh el Atbara Seitan!" _i. e._ Fidele is a devil! the Shekh of Atbara is the devil himself!

All strangers were now dismissed, under pretence of our going immediately to repose. We had, indeed, much need of rest in our present situation, but still more of council, for which we immediately assembled by ourselves, after having shut the door. I asked Soliman what he thought of the Shekh of Atbara, and his discourse. He answered, without hesitation, "He is a traitor, has deceived Yasine, and means you ill." The word, _great man_, so often applied to me--the abuse bellowed upon Yasine, whom in his letters he had called his dear brother--the wondering that I came that way, after, in his letters, and by his servants, he had so often persuaded us, while at Ras el Feel, that it was the best, nay, the only road possible; all this united together, seemed to leave us no doubt but that we had fallen into a trap, from which our own activity and resolutions, under the protection of Providence, could alone release us.

It may be remembered that, some time before our setting out from Ras el Feel, I had dispatched a servant with the Daveina to Sennaar, whom they were to escort as far as Beyla; and they had consigned him into the hands of Mahomet, Shekh of Beyla, who was to forward him to Sennaar; and this he certainly would have done immediately without delay, but for a misfortune that happened, and entirely disconcerted the plan. The Daveina, on their way to Beyla, had heard that an encampment of Arabs, (who usually, at this time, occupy the banks of the Nile) had come eastward towards Atbara. Whether the Daveina intended to attack these Arabs, or were afraid the Arabs intended to fall upon them, I know not; but they returned westward to the left, instead of coming to Beyla; they sent my servant forward, after some loss of time, and Mahomet, Shekh of Beyla, had forwarded him to Sennaar. Here, too, he was detained by Shekh Adelan, the first minister, who happened then not to be at Sennaar, but levying taxes upon the Arabs. This we did not know at that time; so every moment we expected his arrival. We were disappointed, likewise, in not finding a servant of the Shekh of Beyla waiting for us, who was to inform us of the situation of the country about Beyla. This we more wondered at, because, being ill of the gravel, he had expressed himself very anxious, in his letter to Yasine, to have some lime-water, which his servant was to get from me at Teawa. We did not then know, as we soon afterwards did, that this servant had been waiting for us at Teawa, and that Shekh Fidele had informed him that I was no longer coming by Atbara, but that Coque Abou Barea had sent me, under the care of some Ganjar horse, straight down the Dender from Kuara; so that the Shekh of Beyla did not expect to see me.

All this being unknown to us; we were in constant expectation of servants from Sennaar, and the message from the Shekh of Beyla. But, as we all agreed we were in danger, we resolved, the next day, at meeting Shekh el Nile's servant, to dispatch him to Ras el Feel, requiring Yasine to send some person, as from the king or Ayto Confu, to ask the reason of our being detained, and to be a witness of the Shekh's behaviour and our departure. In the mean time, we determined to make our interviews with him as few as possible, till some assistance should arrive. Soliman met the Shekh el Nile's servant, and gave him the letter he was to carry to Yasine, explaining himself to the Arab by word of mouth.

On the night of the 24th of March, the day after our arrival, our dispatch set off from Jibbel Isriff for Ras el Feel; where he arrived safely, but found Yasine was gone to Ayto Confu at Tcherkin, else he would certainly have been the first to bring us comfort, for he had executed his commission with great fidelity. This day I had staid in the house, being ill of the simoom; but had sent to Fidele, to let him know I should wait upon him next day, having as yet given him no present, and being desirous to know what effect that might have.

On the 25th, at four o'clock I waited upon the Shekh accordingly, in his own house. Soliman the Moor, Hagi Ismael the Turk, who, besides, was a sherriffe, and my Greek servant, were along with me. I gave the Shekh, for a present, a large piece of blue Indian cotton cloth, with gold flowers, a silk and cotton sash, about two ounces of civet, two pounds of nutmegs, and ten pounds of pepper. He received the presents very graciously to appearance, and laid all the articles down beside him. I desired that he would dispatch me as soon as possible, and, for that end, be preparing the camels. He answered, the camels were fifteen days journey off, in the sandy desert, for fear of the flies; but that the want of them should not detain us, if he had leave from Sennaar, for which he was to write that night. He added, that they always were exceedingly tedious at Sennaar, and both the town and road were, at present, in a very unsettled state. I told him, I was surprised at this, as Hagi Belal had written to Yasine and myself also, in a letter (then in my custody) that orders were gone both to him and the Shekh of Beyla, to receive me kindly, and forward me safely and speedily to Sennaar: that he himself had confessed this to Yasine in a letter written to him from Teawa, desiring that I would come speedily, as he had every thing ready, which letter I myself had read. Fidele seemed in the utmost surprise at this. He lifted up his hands and eyes, as if I had been telling the greatest of lies. He said, "he never wrote a letter about me to Yasine in his life; or, at least, not this year; that it was all a forgery of Yasine, knowing that I had a quantity of gold with me, to get me out into the desert, to rob and murder me there; that I might see he never could receive such orders, or else it would have been as much as his life was worth, not to have prepared to dispatch me immediately; but so far from that, says he, seek all over the town, and if you find one camel, or any other number, I will make you a present of them all, for this is entirely a forgery of Yasine."

Soliman could bear this no longer. He told Fidele, "That it was he who was a forger and a liar, not Yasine. Will you persuade me that I do not know of your letter to Yasine? Have not your servants Ibrahim and Nasser lived with us at Ras el Feel for weeks together as bearers of these letters, which I have seen in their hands before reading, and also read them afterwards? Was I not speaking to them both this morning about the letters? and are not they just now waiting without? If you have a mind to call them in, and question them, do it now before me. What do you think Yasine will say when he hears of the fine character you give him?" "Soliman, replies the Shekh, in a very soft tone of voice, I may have forgotten, in the many letters and affairs that pass through my hands in a day; but Yasine is my brother, and I will do every thing for him and you that you could wish: stay only this week, and if my camels do not arrive, I will send and take them from the Arabs, wherever they can be found. They are for the king's business, and not mine." He said this with such an air of candour and sincerity, that it was impossible to doubt him.

On the 26th, I went in the forenoon to see the Shekh; I sat a few minutes with him, then rose to go away. He then inquired if I had any thing particular to ask? I answered, I had nothing but to pay my compliments to him. He made me a very civil bow, and I took my leave. Next day, the 27th, I staid in the house all day, it being the Shekh's festival. In the evening, the old man, who was the Kaiya, came to my house with compliments from the Shekh. He told me Fidele was often ill with complaints in the stomach, and hinted that it was from excessive drinking. He wished that I would give him some medicine to vomit him, and restore his appetite, which he had perfectly lost. The old man added, that this was the way to make the Shekh do what I wished, sooner than all the presents in the world. I told him, that he might assure Fidele, that I both could, and would do him that service, and for that purpose would wait upon him at 6 o'clock next evening.